A prominent service provider in the EU, specializing in various business solutions, faced significant challenges in managing its IT infrastructure. Operating two Oracle Exadata systems, one for production and another for non-production used for disaster recovery (DR), the company grappled with high costs and complexity.
High-Cost Challenges
The primary challenge was the high cost, approximately $250,000 annually, of maintaining their disaster recovery environment. Additionally, confusion around Oracle’s policies, particularly the soft partitioning policy for VMware environments and the authorized cloud licensing policy for AWS and Azure, compounded their difficulties.
1. Soft Partitioning Policy for VMware Environments: This policy relates to how Oracle licenses its software in virtualized environments. Historically, Oracle required that all physical processor cores in a server must be licensed if any Oracle software is run in a virtual machine on that server. For VMware, Oracle has taken the approach that any server running VMware must be licensed as the Oracle workloads could run there. This approach is often referred to as “soft partitioning” because it doesn’t recognize virtual boundaries and instead focuses on the physical hardware.
2. Authorized Cloud Licensing Policy for AWS and Azure: This policy defines how Oracle software is licensed when deployed on authorized public cloud platforms, specifically AWS (Amazon Web Services) and Microsoft Azure. Oracle has recognized these platforms as authorized environments for their software, which implies specific licensing rules and considerations when deploying Oracle software in these cloud services. The policy includes details on how licenses are counted and managed in these environments.
Strategic Transformation with LicenseFortress
In partnership with LicenseFortress, the company embarked on a strategic overhaul of their IT infrastructure to reduce their licensing overhead.
1. Migration to VMware on Dell: Transitioning their production environment to VMware on Dell hardware, they sought a more flexible and cost-effective solution than their existing Oracle Exadata setup.
2. Disaster Recovery in Azure: The non-production environment, used for DR, was migrated to Azure. This move, facilitated by LicenseFortress, leveraged Azure’s scalability and flexibility, enabling the company to maintain a minimal DR environment during normal operations. Azure’s backup and disaster recovery solutions are known for their simplicity, high availability, and resilience.
Outcomes and Benefits
In the realm of modern IT infrastructure, the implementation of effective and efficient disaster recovery (DR) solutions is paramount for ensuring business continuity and operational resilience. This section delves into the transformative impact of adopting Azure for disaster recovery, highlighting four key areas of improvement.
1. Significant Cost Reduction: With Azure, the DR costs dramatically decreased to approximately $25,000 annually.
2. Enhanced Flexibility and Scalability: The DR environment in Azure, managed minimally during normal operations, could dynamically scale in response to disasters, ensuring business continuity without the burden of overpaying.
3. Clarity on Oracle Policies: LicenseFortress helped the company resolve confusion around Oracle’s policies, aligning their operations with compliance requirements.
Conclusion
This strategic shift, spearheaded by LicenseFortress, not only resulted in significant cost savings but also equipped the company with a flexible, scalable, and compliant IT infrastructure. The integration of Azure for disaster recovery was instrumental in achieving these operational efficiencies and cost reductions.
